


Loving You Right

by alexcalibur



Category: Original Work
Genre: Childhood, Childhood Emotional Neglect, Childhood Friends, Childhood Sweethearts, Childhood Trauma, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Legend of Zelda References, One Shot, Short One Shot, Short Story, breath of the wild - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:07:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21797362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexcalibur/pseuds/alexcalibur
Summary: Daisy is a young girl growing up to be a young woman and facing the hardships that come with adolescence. Her mother, Leah, is devoted but oblivious and doesn't know how to form an emotional connection with her daughter. As Daisy grows up and Leah grows old Daisy learns that she cannot rely on Leah for emotional support and grows distant from her mother. Leah, having interpreted their relationship much differently, attempts to make amends that she hadn't realized needed to be made.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	Loving You Right

“It’s called Breath of the Wild and Link can fly on a paraglider, and there’s all these potions that you go around and collect! Mika and I played it all day!” Daisy bounced off the balls of her feet as she followed her mother into their apartment. The lights flickered before settling into their dull yellow hue.

“That’s great honey.” Leah heaved a bag of groceries up on to the counter, then picked up her Blackberry and started tapping away at it.

Daisy pulled a piece of green construction paper out of her glittery purple backpack, then tossed it up on to the counter while Leah started putting the groceries away.

“You know what else we did? Mika and me made some pictures, here look!”

She held the paper out for her mother to inspect. Leah finished stacking some oranges in the colander they used as a fruit bowl, then kneeled down to look at the drawing. Daisy grinned up at her mother, eagerly awaiting her reaction, but Leah only smiled thinly. Daisy had seen her mother grin and laugh boisterously before, and thought her eyes were very pretty when they crinkled at the corners, so she was disappointed that her drawing hadn’t elicited one of those smiles.

“That’s nice.” Leah squinted at the picture. “It’s, ah, Mika?”

“No Mama! That’s Link! See he has the pointy hat and the sword?”

“Of course, of course.” 

Leah nodded and handed her back the picture, then walked over to their faded floral futon. She flopped on to the couch with a sigh and started scrolling through her phone. Daisy followed her there and sat next to her on the couch, still clutching the page. She leaned against her mother’s rough, starchy scrubs and Leah jumped in surprise. She patted Daisy’s frizzy hair, then turned back to her phone.

“Mika was telling me about the story of the game and how it takes place like, a hundred years after Link went into an eternal sleep and so the bad guy took over-”

“Hey Daisy, sweetie?” Leah interrupted her. She had bags under her eyes and her frazzled blonde hair was escaping from her bun, but Daisy only noticed that Leah had stopped smiling entirely. She rubbed her temples. “Could I just get the short version of this? A two-sentence summary? Just, what’s the point hon?”

Daisy’s face fell and she glanced down at the sofa. She pulled at a loose thread in one of the flowers.

“I’m sorry Mama. I- I just really liked the game we played and Mika said I can come back to play it sometime.”

Leah nodded. “Glad you two found a game you can play together.”

Leah turned back to her phone, her attention drifting away from Daisy again. She didn’t see Daisy’s quivering lower lip and made no move to stop her when she got up from the couch, pulled her pad of paper and pencils from her backpack, and ran off to her room.

___________

Daisy banged her fist into the bathroom wall in frustration and cried out at the sharp pang that ran through her knuckles. The bright red, puffy eyed reflection of her face caught her eye as she started to gather some paper towels. Hot tears streaked down her face in an unrelenting flow, and she cursed her own feebleness. She took a deep, shaky breath in and set to wiping herself clean, then stuffed some paper towel into her underpants. She knew that Leah kept her supplies in here–she had stumbled across them by accident a year ago–but a thorough search of all the bathroom cabinets had only revealed drain cleaner, a bottle of escitalopram, and a small jar of baby teeth. Daisy splashed some cold water on to her face and pulled her sweaty mess of curls up into a bun, then darted down the stairs to the kitchen.

Leah was sitting at the kitchen table typing out notes from the previous evening’s parent council meeting when she heard Daisy enter the kitchen.

“Hey honey,” she said without looking up.

“Hey Mama.” Daisy rested her arms on the back of the chair next to her mother, and glanced off to the side to hide her still-puffy eyes. Leah looked up but her fingers kept ticking across the keyboard.

“Is there something you-”

“Do you have any pads? I need some,” Daisy blurted out.

Leah’s fingers faltered, and she sat back in her chair. A car horn started blaring outside their building, and was silenced a moment later, leaving only the sound of the wind whistling through the never-quite-fully-closed kitchen window.

“No. I don’t have any now.”

“Well I- I need some. Can you take me to the store?”

Leah’s eyebrows furrowed and her eyes darted back to the screen of her laptop, but after a second she nodded and stood up.

“Okay. Sure.” Leah hesitated. She almost put her arm around Daisy’s shoulder but Daisy flinched away, so Leah walked over to grab her keys from the counter instead. 

“Right. Do you want to, ah-” Leah gestured to her own face. “Clean yourself up first?” 

Daisy balked and put a hand up to her cheek self-consciously. “Actually… I think I know where to find them. I can do it myself. Can I just borrow ten bucks?”

Leah opened her mouth to protest, but seeing Daisy’s pained expression she fished around in her purse for her wallet then handed Daisy a ten-dollar bill. Daisy grabbed it, then spun around and headed towards the door.

“I’ll get this back to you Mama.” She turned back to wave the bill at Leah.

“Daisy wait, do you-” Leah was cut short by the shrill ring of her pager. She looked down and saw a message asking her to come into the clinic early. The door slammed shut behind Daisy and the ensuing silence was only broken by Leah’s exhausted sigh.

___________ 

Daisy threw open the door to the apartment. She grabbed Caleb’s hand and dragged him in, giggling, then pushed him to sit on the couch and leaned down to kiss him. She suddenly heard a cough and froze, her blood turning to ice.

She leaned down to give Caleb’s cheek a quick peck, then stood up and walked over to face Leah in the kitchen. Leah was leaning against the chipping edge of the counter, still in her scrubs, while the microwave spun and heated up day-old Kraft Dinner. Her eyes were narrowed at Daisy and she tapped her fingers on the edge of the counter.

“Who’s this?” she asked.

“Caleb from Games Club.” Daisy swallowed. “I told you about him last month?”

“Oh.” Leah frowned. “Right. Why aren’t you at band practice?”

Daisy shifted her weight from one foot to another. “Practice finished early today. So Caleb and I decided to do some studying together.”

Leah’s eyes darted over to Caleb, but upon failing to find anything particularly heinous in the mussy-haired, sweater-vest wearing teenager, she nodded.

“As long as you get your homework done. You remember the OSSLT is next week right?”

Daisy nodded. “Of course. The teachers definitely haven’t been breathing down our necks about it for the last month, so thanks for the reminder. Is that all?”

Leah waved her hand dismissively. “As long as you know it’s coming.” 

Daisy nodded curtly and rolled her eyes, then beckoned Caleb over to the stairs. He hopped up, grabbing his book bag, and followed her over to the stairs. He smiled at Leah as he passed her.

“It’s nice to meet you ma’am. I’ve heard lots about you!”

Leah waved to the pair as they disappeared up the stairs, but her face was still painted with displeasure. She racked her brain for the name Caleb but could only vaguely recall Daisy mentioning him. She had so much on her mind these days, between her two part-time jobs and the impending tax season.

The microwave dinged, startling Leah out of her thoughts. She had never been one for dwelling and quickly lost her train of thought as the cheesy noodles quelled the biting hunger in her stomach.

Upstairs, Caleb unpacked his school books on to Daisy’s bed.

“You haven’t told your mom you’re not in band anymore?”

Daisy’s chest ached as she thought of all the things she’d love to tell her mother.

“She wouldn’t care. All she cares about is that I do good in school and have lots of extracurriculars to coat my resume. She didn’t even remember you and I’ve showed her pictures of you!” Daisy exclaimed.

“I’m sure she’s doing her best… but that does suck.”

They both stared at the old, worn textbooks scattered across Daisy’s bed for a moment.

“You wanna play some Breath of the Wild?”

Daisy smiled and hooked her cool fingers between Caleb’s warm ones. “You know I do.”

___________ 

Mika posed her hands under her chin and stared at Daisy from across the cafeteria table. Daisy looked up from her fries and eyed her questioningly.

“So… when are you going to tell your mom?”

Daisy laughed wryly. “What’s there to tell? I fucked up.” She sighed and stared down at the cafeteria table.

“But you can’t just not tell her Daze! She works at the clinic, and won’t the doctor have to tell her anyway?”

Daisy shook her head.

“Nope, early birthday. I’m eighteen so she can’t check my medical records anymore. Plus I’m going to the downtown clinic.”

Daisy didn’t realize she was tearing up until Mika reached out to steady her shaking hand. She dabbed at her cheek in surprise.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. You have me and Caleb, and we’re here for you. You know we’d both do anything for you.”

Daisy nodded in appreciation and lay her face down on her arms, staring across the table at Mika. “Yeah, you guys are the best. I wish I wasn’t so- so helpless though. I’m so dumb, we never should’ve… but at least we caught it early.” Daisy raised her head and stared off across the cafeteria. It was blessedly empty and free of unwanted ears. Snow fell outside the window and hid away the dirty, grey ground. “I read about it… they give you some pills and within a few days you’re… back to normal.”

“You’ve got this.” Mika squeezed her hand. Daisy pulled her phone out, closed an open tab on BabyNames.com, then squeezed her eyes shut.

___________ 

Daisy’s eyes snapped up from her computer screen when she heard the doorbell ring.

“Coming!” she called, quickly saving the file for the character she was designing. She threw open the door to her townhouse and grinned.

“Babe, how are you?” Daisy jumped forward into Caleb’s embrace and squeezed him tight.

“Daze, I’m excellent! I can’t believe you’re already graduating though, how wild is that?”

She glanced over his shoulder and raised her eyebrows. “Woah, new car? What happened to Junebug?”

Caleb shifted on his feet and glanced away from Daisy. “Oh, uh, it’s not mine. Okay, promise you won’t hate me for this?”

Daisy laughed and tilted her head. “I could never hate you. But for what?”

“Well… I kinda invited your mom up for your graduation.”

Daisy groaned and buried her face in Caleb’s chest. “Oh god… hon why?”

“Well she called me and asked if I knew anything about it, and I didn’t want to be rude so I told her when it was, and then she suggested we carpool, so…”

Daisy exhaled. “Okay. Alright, well she’s here now. I’ll go talk to her.”

Leah spotted Daisy descending the porch and stepped out of the car, grinning at her daughter.

“Hey honey!”

Daisy stopped short of the car but Leah came up to meet her and threw her arms around her neck in a big hug. Daisy was stiff in her embrace. After a moment Leah stepped back and took in her daughter.

“Look at you, I can’t believe how grown you are now!”

“Leah, what are you doing here?” Daisy crossed her arms and Leah’s smile faltered. As Daisy examined her, she was surprised to see that her mother’s hair was flecked with grey now, and her once well-fitted navy blue pantsuit now sat loosely on her form.

“Well this is such a big day for you! You only graduate college once, and some people don’t even get that far. I’m proud of you and I want to support you.” Leah smiled again, the corners of her eyes wrinkling. Daisy felt her breath catch in her throat.

“And?”

Leah blinked in surprise. “Sorry?”

Daisy threw her arms in the air. “Why are you here Leah?” 

“What do you mean? Can’t a mother support her daughter?”

Daisy laughed humourlessly. “Oh yeah sure! In fact, as a parent, you are supposed to! But do you think that waltzing in for the end of year concert, or prom, or graduation is really support when you don’t give a damn what it took to get me here?”

Daisy turned in a huff to go back into her house but Leah grabbed her by the shoulder.

“Excuse me? Daisy Elizabeth, do you know what I have sacrificed to get you where you are today?” Daisy winced at the venom in her mother’s voice and yanked her arm away from her mother’s grip. “I have financially supported you all your life, and worked ‘round the clock to make sure you can live comfortably.”

“But have you ever asked me how I’m doing?” Leah opened her mouth and closed it again. “You knew the logistics of my life, but were you there to support me when I was breaking down over my exams? Did you ever give me advice on how to handle boy problems, or how to handle being a girl? Did you know that I’ve been going to counseling for three years to make up for some of these things? Do you remember how surprised you were when I said I was going to major in game design, despite the fact that I have been in love with design since I exited the dank sewer that was your birth canal?”

She spat out the last words, and they fell on Leah like a physical blow. She staggered backward and grabbed at the car door, face whitening. Caleb had joined the pair and was watching the exchange with mounting unease. He took Daisy’s hand and clutched it; the warmth was a familiar comfort for her.

“I just tried to raise you the way my parents raised me. They didn’t… talk to me.”

“There’ve been so many times I wished I could talk to you but you didn’t listen. You had better things to do than listening to the whines of a child,” Daisy spat. “But I found other people who did listen,” she added, glancing at Caleb.

A breeze kicked up and knocked women’s hair into a wild dance around their faces as they scoured each other’s faces for some mutual understanding.  
“It’s- that’s not true,” Leah finally mumbled. “I… had a C-Section.”

Daisy was so taken aback that she laughed.

She swallowed. “Is it too late to start… listening… now?”

Daisy sighed and tilted her head backwards to gaze up at the bright blue, cloudless sky. “Do you want to head inside? Convocation’s in a few hours but I can make us some tea Mama.”


End file.
